After the recall of a Lord Lieutenant sympathetic to immediate Catholic emancipation in 1795, they appealed to France for aid.

Wellington was aide-de-camp to two successive Lords Lieutenant of Ireland, the Earl of Westmorland and Earl Fitzwilliam, 1787-1793, and between 1790 and 1797 he sat in the Irish Parliament as Member for the family seat of Trim.

The English forces initially were commanded by James Butler, Duke of Ormonde and lord lieutenant of Ireland.